HiT recently chatted with Mariah Carey and asked the singer about her thoughts on Toni Braxton coming out and giving her credit for mixing diva R&B with hip-hop way before it became cool. “Yeah, I saw that, that was nice of her. I love hip-hop,” she said. “I grew up on hip-hop in New York. I experienced the birth of hip-hop. It’s organic for me. But people don’t understand. Take ‘Dream Lover’. It’s a cute little pop song, but it’s based on a sample of a record called ‘Blind Alley’ which has been used by so many rappers just freestyling – ‘Ain’t No Half Steppin” by Big Daddy Kane for one. The average public hears ‘Dream Lover’ and has no clue. But Q-Tip said to me, ‘You realize you’re a catalyst for what’s happening in music right now. You used ‘Blind Alley’, you sang over that loop.’ It takes someone knowledgeable about old school hip-hop to know that. I love ballads, they’re therapy for me. But doing ‘Boy (I Need You)’ with Cam’ron or ‘You Got Me’ with Jay Z, that’s part of me too.”